TV The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead, a popular comic book series that deals with the survivors of a zombie apocalypse and so the TV show that has been adapted very faithfully by some of the movie industries top creative individuals such as writer/director Frank Darabont and make up special effects by Greg Nicotero has recently aired and is actually quite impressive.

The first episode plays like a movie and the horror and violence is like a movie too, although with this being a TV series, you can expect lots of character drama and emotional turmoil mixed in with the zombies as there is only so much zombie action you can watch all at once. The series does a good job of showing that apocalyptic atmosphere with the streets abandoned and the quietness of the streets and it's fun to see some new imagery as well as some direct from the comic book.

The story starts out as a quick intro sequence in which a cop Andrew Lincoln is seen walking with a seemingly empty petrol can in an abandoned town when he sees a little girl pick up a teddy bear, but then when she turns around it's a zombie with half her mouth ripped out, so he shoots her in the head!.

It then cuts back to a time before the zombie outbreak with a few minute conversation between two cops in a car before they get called out to stop a car that is believed to have gunmen. We see the cop Andrew Lincoln get shot and the next minute he's in Hospital in a coma, he then awakes to find himself alone in the hospital (much like 28 days later!) and sees the corridors of the infirmary empty with signs of something that has happened, blood on the walls and a body ripped apart on the floor and also a door marked "Dead Inside Don't Open"

From that point on it's a case of seeing other survivors like Lincolns wife and son who he will reunite with later on in the show and there are other survivors along the way too.

There are some very cool special effects of zombies in this TV series and they are horror movie standard with a top half of a zombie crawling along a park with it's skull like teeth showing which was something you wouldn't get to see on any other TV Show really.

I'm really excited for this series as the zombie horror genre has been around for awhile now and there have been many movies about zombies, such as Land of the Dead and Diary of the Dead ( 2 very recent George Romero movies continuing from his trilogy of movies spanning three decades) And there seems to be a fascination with zombies and the walking dead in video games and novels such as World War Z which was a fun almost real life account of a zombie outbreak.

The Walking Dead is definitely compelling viewing and I highly recommend it!

Season 2 is considered the slowest of the season as it couldn't really make up it's mind where to go. Of course there was the dealing with Shane storyline which had to be resolved this series as the first season was only 6 episodes and you couldn't really build up to the end of Shanes character quickly in that time frame, so it did make sense to continue that plot point into the second season, but the result made the series drag a bit. But on the plus side we got to see Hershel and the Farm that was in the comic, so this more than made up for it.

There was a nice episode were we see a fat bloated Zombie trapped at the bottom of a well and all of the survivors attempts to get that fat Zombie out of the well so they can create clear water ends up with the Zombie bursting and spilling nasty Zombie blood and guts back into the Well.

So this second season is a bit hit and miss, but it definitely sets up Season 3 when we find our Zombie Apocalypse survivors arriving at a seemingly abandoned Prison.

The Walking Dead first appeared around 10 years ago now and it was the beginning and is considered as an alternate universe to The Walking Dead TV series. Naturally similar things happen like meeting existing characters from the comics and similar places and scenery that we are used to from the books, but things happen differently to keep the series fresh for the comic book fans and vice versa.

Written by Robert Kirkman and illustrated by Charlie Adlard and later Tony Moore the character development in the comic book is what makes the Human struggle that even more fascinating as the characters try to cope with a seemingly never ending Zombie Apocalypse and the struggle for finding food and a safe place to live, sleep and just exist.

I myself bought the first 2 compendiums of the Walking Dead as it collects around 40 separate comic book issues all into one mammoth 1,000 plus page graphic novel and that to me felt like a more compelling read as you can just read as much as you want or even in one sitting.

I recommend the comics if you haven't read them and you're a fan of the TV show. You'll be amazed at the stories and you might just get excited about the stuff that happens both in the comics and the television show more, because I sure did.